Edge of the Sea
by K-yers
Summary: After her best friend is killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor, Eleanor Swartz volunteered for the Marines to help her country fight back. But when she goes to war in the Pacific theater, she'll find that she may have bitten off more she can chew. Eventual Snafu/OC
1. 1: The Dawson House

**Lilly Dawson, January 2015**

I approached the old house with skeptical eyes. The property had once belong to my great-grandparents, and now my family was finally claiming the house and property that had been left to them in my grandmother's will. The house was in northern Florida, a long drive away from our house up in New York and from the Florida beaches. Yet my parents insisted, saying that it would mean a lot to Grandma Dawson if we did _something_ with the house.

The house itself wasn't that bad. It was a small two-story house with chipped white paint. The shudders on the windows had seen better days and they were a faded blue color. There was a wire fence surrounded the property, but there were also areas where the fence had fallen apart. The yard was overgrown; wild grass almost as tall as my younger brother Will. There was a swampy pond a little ways away. I moved towards it, curious and wanting to explore the property.

"Hey, Lilly!" My dad shouted at me from the front porch. "Be careful wandering around over there. You don't want to be eaten by gators!" I glanced back to the murky pond beside the house, completely still. If there had ever been alligators in this pond, they were probably long dead by now. I left the pond and joined my parents where they stood on the front porch.

My mom was running her hand on chipped and faded paint work. "Did your mother tell you _how_ this house is in the family?"

Dad shrugged, looking at the door. "She just said that it was her mom's. I don't remember her ever talking about it." He had the key in his hand. He sighed and ran a hand through his dark black hair, which my dad only ever did when he was nervous. "Well, let's not waste time staring at it. Let's go inside." He moved forward and unlocked the front door before pushing it open with a deafening creak.

I walked inside right behind my parents. Will, who had been exploring the garden area, ran after us to come inside too.

The inside could only be described as dark and dusty. It was mostly empty, except for a few articles of furniture such as a moth eaten couch and a coffee table with wood that looked like it was about to rot through. Mom pushed her blond hair back, eyeing the dust with distaste. She had always hated messes, so this house itself was going to be a challenge.

"Be very careful, kids." Mom said. "This house has been abandoned since the sixties. Right, Will?" She was talking to my dad now-my dad and brother were both Williams.

"Right," Dad said. "I have no idea why my grandmother left this place. If I remember correctly, she went out west; probably California."

I had never met my great-grandmother. Like Dad had said, she had moved to California some time during the sixties. She had died in the late nineties, a year or two before I was born. From what I had seen in my grandmother's photo albums, she had had dark black hair and bright blue eyes. She had been surprisingly muscular, especially around the shoulder area. In all of the pictures, my great-grandmother had a tough look to her, something that made her seem meaner and grittier than everyone else's grandmothers or great-grandmothers.

We continued exploring the house. The kitchen had rats in it, to my mom's horror. There were only two bedrooms, the master and the spare. "You and Lilly would have to share if we fixed this place up." Dad told Will at some point.

It wasn't long until I found the very steep set of stairs leading to a solitary door. I stared up at it, thinking that it looked like something from a horror movie. "Hey Dad," I called, looking away from the second floor door.

"Yeah?" Dad shouted from the spare bedroom. He poked his head out of the door.

I pointed up the stairs to the door. "Is there a key for that?"

Dad followed my gaze. "I don't think so. Do you want to wait for me to go up there?"

I couldn't explain it, but I wanted to go up there alone. "I think I can handle it." Dad nodded before disappearing back into the spare bedroom. I started climbing the stairs; they creaked with each and every step I took. I reached the top of the stairs and opened the door. It didn't move at first, but I finally managed to shove it open. It creaked loudly and I stepped into the attic.

The attic was the most crowded room in the whole house. Trunks, baskets, a tall wardrobe, there were several lumps of darkness amongst the room. A window was at the far end of the room, but it wasn't able to let in a lot of light due to the thick dust coating the glass. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and turned the flashlight on, shining it around the attic.

I opened the wardrobe first, finding a few womens dresses that look like they came from the thirties or forties. I ran my free hand over the clothes, feeling the moth eaten clothes. I imagined them in mint condition and thought that they would've been really pretty. The baskets in the attic were also filled with clothes. I sat down my phone so that the light shined upward. I shifted through the clothes, feeling the now rough cotton and wool clothes.

Bringing my phone, I moved on to the trunk underneath one of the baskets. There was a large buckle on the trunk, but it was easy to open. The trunk lid creaked as I opened it. It seemed that every door in this house creaked as loudly as it possibly could.

I stared at the contents of the trunk and shined the light into it. It was filled with books and papers. I brought out one stack of letters, tied together with a thin cord. I untied the cord (which took a while because the knots were fantastically done) and stared at the name on the envelopes. They were all addressed to this house for a Nora Swartz, and they were all from a man named Eugene Sledge.

There was another stack of envelopes tied with a cord. These were addressed to Ellie Swartz, and these were from a Norman Swartz. I found a final stack, smaller than all the others, but they were addressed to Eleanor Swartz from Diana Liebgott. I frowned for a long moment before realizing that the names Nora and Ellie were just nicknames for this Eleanor Swartz. For a moment I was confused as to why this woman's letters would be in Grandma's old house, but then I realized that this had been great-grandmother's house before Grandma Dawson's.

There was a pretty big photo album inside the trunk. I pulled it out carefully, the old leather feeling like it could fall apart. I opened the album up, and was greeted by black and white pictures. The very first one was of a couple with the lady carrying two babies in her arms. Both parents had black hair and I couldn't tell what color their eyes were due to the back and white photo. Underneath the picture, in a sort of scrawl, said _David and Norma Swartz, 1922._

The next picture had a brother and sister, most likely twins because they looked so similar. The scrawl said, _Norman and Eleanor Swartz, 1942._ On the very next page was two separate pictures of Norman and Eleanor, both wearing military uniforms. Norman's said that his was a uniform for the Army's airborne, while Eleanor's was for the Marines.

I blinked. I didn't remember learning a lot about history, but I had no idea that there were women allowed in the military back then. I was probably being ignorant, so I turned the page. It was a copy of Eleanor's transcript, telling me when she volunteered for the Marines, when she went to basic training, and where she was sent to for service. I expected her to be in Australia or someplace like that, but nope. My great-grandmother had been sent off to the frontlines of the Pacific.

Shifting through the letters, I found out the chronological order of them and stacked them in that order. If I was going to read them, I wanted to read them thoroughly. The only problem was that the letters from Eugene Sledge and Diana Liebgott didn't start until long after the war was over. I dug through the trunk some more and found a thick diary of sorts. I opened it and was intensely relieved to see that the diary was written in the same scrawl as before.

Something at the bottom of the trunk caught my eye. Against the darkness of the attic, the bright white material down there stuck out completely. I frowned and sat down the diary before reaching down and grabbing something silky.

I pulled out a big Japanese Rising Sun flag. It was still silky and soft, and there were some Japanese characters written on it in the top corner of it. I held it up, trying to get a good look at it. The red was faded due to age and lack of sunlight, but there was no mistaking what it was.

"Lilly!" Mom's voice called from below. "C'mon, we're leaving!" I glanced down at the door and then back to all that I had found. I wanted to read about her-my great-grandmother. As fast as I could, I gathered the letters and diary, making sure to keep them in chronological order. I folded the flag back up before setting it back into the trunk. We'd be back tomorrow to finish deciding if we wanted to demolish the house or just give it an extreme makeover.

"What's that there?" Dad asked when he saw my stack of letters and the diary. I merely said that they were something I found and crawled into the back of the car. As we pulled away from the house, I opened up Eleanor Swartz's diary, and began to read the first page.


	2. 2: Bully

My mother cried when I told her that I had joined the Marines. She bent her head into her hands and sobbed, saying something about how Norman was going off to fight too. I felt bad for leaving her like this, but I knew that I wouldn't be able to sit here while Norman did all the fighting. After I calmed Mama down a bit, I entered the master bedroom to where Daddy's wheelchair was sitting, facing the open window.

"Daddy?" I said, approaching the back of his chair. He remained silent. I sat down on the edge of the bed next to his chair and looked at him. Daddy had fought in the first world war, and he had had a horrible run in with mustard gas around the end of it. The gas had blinded him in one eye and he now had scarring on the right side of his face. But now it was a stroke that had paralyzed my father. The old man had immigrated to America from Denmark when he was a toddler, fought with his adopted country, and now he was rotting away on this little farm in northern Florida.

"I joined the Marines," I told him. He didn't respond and continued to stare out of his window. I unfolded my orders from my pocket. "It says here that I'm going to California to train as a corpsman and then they'll send me out to the Pacific." I paused before saying, "Norman's going off to Georgia in a few weeks. He said they're called paratroopers."

Daddy continued to be a mute. I sighed and wiped off some of the drool that had started to gather at the corner of his mouth. "I wish you could talk to me." I muttered. "You saw war; you might be able to help us both."

More silence.

I squeezed his shoulder once before leaving the room. Mama was still in the kitchen, leaning her forehead against the counter. A stab of guilt went through me at the sight of her in pain. She was losing both kids to the war the Germans had started. Norman and I wouldn't even be in the same military branch. He was going to jump out of planes; I was going to be saving men from their wounds.

My orders told me that I had to leave for basic training in six days, long before Norman left for Georgia. I walked into the bedroom I had always shared with him and looked around. Our entire lives were packed away in this room; how were we supposed to pack up and leave in just a few days?

When Norman came home, I was sitting on the front porch waiting for him. He pulled up in the family's only automobile, used only for going into town. I stood up as he approached, looking up into the face that was so much like mine. Norman immediately sensed something was wrong when he saw me.

"You okay, Ellie?" Norman asked, using the nickname he had given me when we were much younger. Back when our only problems were whose turn it was to spoon feed Daddy. I told Norman everything about volunteering for the Marines to how I was leaving in six short days. My twin stayed silent for the entire time, his eyes narrowing and then getting misty.

We didn't speak for a while after I finished. Until: "Is this because _I'm_ leaving?"

I shook my head. "No. We probably wouldn't be sent together in the first place. Conflict of interest of something like that."

Norman shook his head. "You shouldn't be going. A damn _girl_ shouldn't be going to war." I frowned at him and he quickly backtracked. "I didn't mean it like that, Ellie. Shit. What about Mama?"

I flinched. "I wasn't thinking about her. I was thinking about Taylor." I mumbled. Norman stared at me for a long time, hurt shining in his eyes, before sighing and shaking his head.

"D'you remember Lewis Hedegard?"

"Yeah," I said, not sure where he was going with this.

Norman laughed shortly. "I remember back in elementary school-Lewis Hedegard was pulling on some girl's pigtails and calling her horrible names and kicking dirt and rocks on her."

"Lewis was and still is an ass," I said, remembering the mean boy from our grade. "What of him?"

"Hedegard was harassing that poor girl, and then you stomped right up to him and punched him on the nose as hard as you could." Norman said with another laugh. "You told him to pick on someone who could actually fight back and then you beat the shit outta that kid."

"Mama was furious," I said, thinking back on it. Mama had beaten my butt afterwards with a wooden spoon, yelling at me that I shouldn't go beating up kids at school. She hadn't known that I had only fought Lewis because he was picking on Rebecca Lynn Garcia. Norman met my eyes and gave me a small smile.

"You beat up a kid just because he was beating up someone who couldn't defend themself." Norman said. "I think that in that crazy mind of yours, you're going off to go fight off another bully." I stared at him, not fully knowing how my brother put that connection together, but it made me smile anyway. Norman smiled back down at me. "So since you're going off to beat up some more bullies, I think you're going to be just fine out there."

The sting of tears came to my eyes and I blinked them away, not wanting to cry in front of my brother, even though he had seen me cry countless times throughout our lives. Norman put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it tightly. I ducked my head and breathed heavily. Norman patted my shoulder and removed his hand before going back inside of the house.

I stared out at the property, the only place I had really known. Down by the creekbeds in the woods grew wild blackberry bushes. Norman and I would go down there and pick them before bringing most of them back home to eat with Mama's homemade ice cream. The swampy pond beside the house was the home to mallard ducks during the spring and summer; in the winter, Canadian geese to come to live with us. Norman was once attacked by them because he kept trying to see their nests. Together, we had chased deer and climbed trees and stolen honeycombs from beehives (getting horribly stung in the process).

I had had my first kiss on this front porch. I had been fifteen years old when Joe Anderson had kissed me. I knew for a fact that Norman had lost his virginity to a girl who was two years older than us in the old farmhouse behind out house. My twin had told me about the day after it happened, just because he felt that I should know. We close enough to tell each other that, and now we were separating for the first time in our lives.

This was my home, and in a way it was all I had ever known. I'd be leaving all of this behind for an unfamiliar land with people who probably wouldn't want me there. Maybe I was crazy for going out there. It technically wasn't too late: I could still just not show up for basic. What would they do? Hunt me down and drag me there?

The sun had just set. I stared out at the darkening sky and swallowed. I wouldn't back down; I couldn't. I remembered the rage and helplessness I had felt when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, when I had heard about my best friend Taylor getting killed in the explosions. I wanted to be a part of the group that would help save the country. It was like Norman said: I stood up to my bullies.


	3. 3: Training

I was only training for a few days when I realized that the men in my company hated the fact that I was there with them. Even though I was training right beside them, they refused to include me and they either outright ignored me or shoved me around. Our commanding officer had made a point of telling everyone that I was to be treated like any other soldier. The group of men who hated me the most took this to mean, "Harass her until she feels like quitting."

Or at least that's what I thought Sheridan was trying to do with me. Sheridan and his two buddies, Trager and Perkins, were determined to make me go home. Trager had told me that much after he had tackled me to the ground during a practice wrestling match. "Go home, dame." He had snapped after getting up. The wind had been knocked out of me, so I hadn't been able to make a reply of any kind.

There were only a few guys who tolerated me, and they were few and far in between. A man named Snafu often stared at me with his light eyes, but he never talked to me. He only really talked to another man named Burgin. I found myself jealous of their companionship, but forced myself not to think too much about it.

On one day, we had to run an obstacle course the size of a football field. Our commanding officer explained that we had to run the length of the course to finish, and then we'd be able to be done for the day. The last five men who finished were on latrine duty.

"Hey Swartz," Sheridan said, choosing the starting place right next to me. "I hope you have fun when you're scrubbing my shit." I stiffened at his sudden closeness, at his rudeness. I just wanted this man to leave me alone. The shrill whistle sounded and I launched myself forward.

I suddenly became thankful for all that time running through the woods with Norman when we were younger. I was able to drop and crawl, hurdle, and weave with ease. I passed Sheridan without much difficulty and stayed in front of him. There were still several men in front of me, but I was no where near being one of the last five.

As I reached the end of the obstacle course, I smiled to myself, pain exploding in my chest and legs. I could see the finish quite clearly, some of the men already there. I hurried forward, anxious to finish.

Suddenly, I heard pounding footsteps and felt a large hand shove me from behind. I fell face first into the rough ground. The footsteps continued on and I looked up just in time to see Sheridan cross the line. He turned and looked back at me, grinning that infuriating smile of his.

I got to my feet and finished the obstacle course behind a few other men, who had caught up. Once I finished, I moved away from the others and stood at the edge of the crowd, glaring at Sheridan and wishing that he tripped over his shoelaces and fell off of a cliff. The men who had witnessed what had happened were either glancing between me and Sheridan or they weren't doing anything, as if they didn't care about me at all.

They probably didn't.

Sheridan was laughing about something with Trager and Perkins. I breathed heavily and hated the three of them for that moment. I wanted to rush up to them and punch those stupid smiles off of their faces. I wanted to hurt them, but I couldn't. As their medic, it'd be my job to save them when it came time to. No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't hold on to grudges. I just hoped they realized that when we got to the actual fight.

We were moving over to the next phase of training when I was shouldered roughly by Perkins. I stopped walking for a second so that I could be at the back of the group where no one could do that again. The men ignored me as I let them pass, except for Snafu who stopped walking and looked at me with that knowing look on his face.

"Ya shouldn't have come here, girl." Snafu said simply before continuing on. I watched him go, wondering if he was right.

* * *

I entered the medical tent, feeling relaxed for the first time that day. Unless you were a training corpsman, an actual _trained_ corpsman, or an injured person, you were not allowed inside the medical tent. It was the only place where Sheridan and his friends couldn't harass or shove me. I sighed and approached the back of the tent, where one of the trained medics was.

The head corpsman here was Martin, a veteran from the first world war. The older man had a true gift when it came to medicine; it seemed to me that he could take care of any kind of injury or illness that came his way. Through him, I learned about diseases like jungle rot that I would have to face on the islands, how to properly take care of a bullet hole and how to stitch a man back together.

"Swartz," Martin said, glancing up at me briefly before going back to the medical tools laying on the tray in front of him. "Which of these is the proper utensil to help keep out infection with wounds?"

I approached the tray and peered down at it. I quickly spotted the packets of sulfa and pointed to it. Martin nodded. "Good. What can you substitute for thread if you do not have any left?"

"Dental floss," I answered. We always went through the same thing every day. He'd drill me on questions and I'd answer them until he decided it was time to do hands on experience. After a few minutes of going back and forth, Martin nodded.

"Alright, Swartz: someone has been shot from close range by a Japanese soldier with a hollow-pointed bullet. What do you do?"

"Does he have an exit wound?" I asked.

"No,"

"He needs sulfa for the entrance wound and to be tagged for the aid station."

"And?"

"And because it was fired at close range there's a higher chance of internal bleeding. And because it's a hollow-pointed bullet, it will shatter while inside him and pierce whatever it can get. So that's more risk for internal damage."

"And how would you go about removing the shards?"

"Well, I'd have to perform surgery as soon as possible-hopefully the fight would be over or I'd be able to get him away from it." I responded. Martin nodded in approval. We suddenly heard someone clear their throat at the tent entrance. I looked over to see Snafu standing there, looking out of place in the medical tent and glancing between me and Martin.

"What can we do for you, Shelton?" Martin asked in his monotone voice. Snafu's eyes snapped to him when he heard his real last name.

"Ah, I'm supposed to get something outta your way?" Snafu said in his thick drawl. Martin's eyes lit up and he nodded.

"Oh yes," He said. "I'll be back, Swartz. Go ahead and start disinfecting morphine needles." I gave my superior a nod before moving towards the morphine needles. Martin left the tent and Snafu watched him go before turning back to me. I thought he was going to say something to me but he just turned around and left me standing there.

Later that night, I moved to my bunk. On the first day, I had been assigned to the bunk the farthest from the door. I didn't mind much, other than the fact that I had to walk by the rest of K Company before making it to my bed. From underneath my blanket, I got changed from my physical training clothes to my relaxation clothes, all of my clothing being a size too big.

There was suddenly a loud scuffle behind me and I turned around to see Snafu standing over the man who had the bunk right beside me. The entire company was on their feet, shouting at the two of them or edging forward to try and stop Snafu. But the Cajun had stopped and he moved away from the fallen man.

Snafu quickly tossed the man's belongings from the bunk to the ground. And then he laid down and stretched out before staring down the men surrounding him. The man who had owned the bunk before glared at Snafu. Snafu shrugged and stretched out even more. "My bunk now." The man seethed before stalking over to Snafu's old bunk.

I stared at Snafu, wondering what the hell that was all about. But he was ignoring me and looked like he was trying to go to sleep. I sighed and laid back on my own bunk, figuring that I should follow his example.


	4. 4: Australia

Snafu dominated his new bunk area, and no one could seem to understand why, least of all me seeing how no one told me anything. Training continued until finally, we were sent off out of camp and to San Francisco where we'd be shipped off to Australia. And then to the Pacific Theater.

I wrote down everything that happened to me in a diary that Mama had given me. She said that she wanted to know everything that happened to me during training, so that she could just read them instead of having me relive everything. She was smart that way, I thought to myself. I barely remembered my dad ever telling us about his time in his war, but I do remember how he would wake up screaming. Norman and I would wake up along with him and sit in the darkness, waiting for our mama to calm him back down.

Burgin and Snafu saw me writing in it one day, and I thought for sure that they'd make some snide comment about girls writing in their diaries. A lot of the other men had. But instead Burgin just frowned slightly. "You know it's dangerous to have those with us? If the enemy gets a hold of it, they'll know everything."

I shrugged at him. "I'll make sure they don't get it then." Burgin and Snafu glanced at each with slight smirks before walking off together. I watched them go, realizing that that had been the friendliest conversation I had ever received from these boys.

In San Francisco, a mob had formed to say goodbye to us. We marched past them, some of the boys stopping to accept the kisses or hugs that the locals girls were offering them. I kept my head low, but that didn't stop the people to see that I wasn't a man, and it took them a few more seconds to start staring at me with pity, disgust, maybe anger. Some civilian men shouted to me, "Hey, _girl_ , you going to keep our boys company while they're out there?" This question was met by laughter, some of the men drunk, others not.

Burgin was suddenly at my side. "Ignore them," He said. I blinked up at him, taken aback by the sudden companionship. Burgin glanced down at me and frowned. "What? Stop looking at me like that." He continued to keep the pace with me, not talking to me anymore. Despite the prickly words he had said, I found myself grateful for his presence. As we boarded the boat, I caught eye of Snafu directly behind us. The man didn't have a sense of personal space, so he was _directly_ behind us.

The people still waved goodbye to us as our ship started to move. I stood close to Burgin and Snafu, or the pair of them stayed close to me. Either way, I wasn't able to leave their side for long. The ship passed Alcatraz, and the Angel Island. And pretty soon, we were in open sea and heading off to Australia.

Because our names started with S's, I got to bunk close to Snafu. Unfortunately, this also meant that Sheridan was close by. At first, Sheridan tried to shove me off a cot so that he could have it, but Snafu interjected and ended up forcing Sheridan away. When Snafu turned back to me, he looked at me and said, "Move over,"

Hesitantly, I did. Snafu laid down on the cot next to me and closed his eyes. I stared at him, caught off guard by his sudden closeness. Snafu opened one eye and looked at me with it. "Gotta share bunks, Swartz. Too many men and not enough room. You wanna share with Sheridan?"

I just laid down next to him as an answer. Snafu snorted loudly and closed his eye. I shook my head slightly at him and tried to get comfortable. It was going to be a long trip to Australia.

* * *

We docked in Australia a little over a week later. The Australians greeted us the same way the Americans said goodbye; cheerful and looking thrilled to see us. King Company was the first to leave the boat and we were herded into large military trucks. Once again, I found myself close to Burgin and Snafu. They didn't seem to mind, in fact Burgin kept trying to get me closer, pointing out something to me and he wanted me to take a look at it.

King had to stay in an abandoned stadium. To me, it looked like where football teams would play. I wasn't sure if Australians played football, and so I avoided mentioning it to any of the Australians that I came in contact with, to avoid looking like an ignorant American. Speaking of which, we had five days before we were sent off to our next base, so men like Sheridan and his friends were going crazy.

There was a curfew, but the men were still allowed to enter the city to drink and fraternize with the local women. We'd be leaving in five days, so the men were trying to get out of their systems. Burgin disappeared a few times before coming back every night, the same went for Snafu, who would come back just in time for curfew.

"You not gonna go out there for yourself?" Snafu asked me one night. He smelled like alcohol and he was slurring his words even more than he already did.

I sighed and shook my head. "We have one more day here. Don't think I'll be able to get a lot done."

Snafu stared hard at me, smoking a cigarette and narrowing his blue eyes at me. I looked back at him and frowned. He held my gaze for what felt like a whole minute before cracking into a wide and white smile. He turned back around and laid down on his cot, and I thought that that was the end of the conversation. But the moment we were given our pass for the night, Snafu was back by my cot.

"C'mon, Swartz," Snafu said, slamming his hands down on my thin mattress and making the whole frame of the cot shake. I gave him a glare and remained in bed. Snafu smirked once more before grabbing my wrists, not that roughly either, and pulling me up to my feet. "You're not stayin' here for our last day. Now stand your ass up and c'mon."

"Well, aren't you charming?" I asked him. Snafu snorted and waited impatiently for me to follow him out of the stadium. When I finally got to him, Burgin had joined Snafu and they were both pacing. When I approached them, Burgin snorted and said, "Well, it's about damn time."

The two men took me out to a pub that was less than a mile away from the stadium where we were camping. It was nineteen-forty-three, I would turn twenty-one in December, but that didn't stop me from drinking beer with the pair of them for the first time.

The alcohol burned my throat and made my head spin slightly, but it felt good at the same time. Sitting at a pub with Snafu and Burgin, was the closest I had been so far to having friends in King Company. So we drank.

The next afternoon, King Company was once again put onto military trucks and driven to a sea port. We got our destination for the first time-we needed to secure an airfield called Cape Gloucester.


	5. 5: Snafu

Right before we had to load onto the ship, a few privates were going around delivering last minute mail calls. I was checking my med kits, trying to make sure I had more than enough supplies for the upcoming battle. I jumped slightly when I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. I looked up to see a pimple-faced private holding out a letter.

"I'm guessin' that you're Eleanor Swartz," He said in a thick Southern drawl.

"That would be me," I said, taking the envelope from him. "Thanks." He grunted before wandering off to go find someone else who got mail. I looked down to my own letter and recognized Norman's handwriting immediately.

"King Company!" Someone cried out, signaling our turn to climb on board the ship. I stuffed Norman's letter into my jacket and followed, zipping my med kits up. My stomach felt like it was in knots, and judging by the looks on the other men's faces, they were feeling the exact same way.

Everyone except Snafu. The Cajun looked cool as a cucumber, not a single nervous emotion crossing his face. I envied him of this, wanting desperately to be able to hide my emotions. In that moment, I saw why he had his nickname.

We were only on the ship for a half hour before the engine rumbled to life underneath our feet. It started to take us out to sea again, and we started towards the island of New Guinea. All around me, men were reading or writing last minute letters. A lot of them were still talking loudly to each other, spewing profanity and talking dirty about the Australian girls they encountered. After a while, it got old.

I stood up and edged my way out of the barrack area where King was staying. The men ignored me for the most, just like always. After wandering the countless hallways, I found a quiet corner to sit in. I sat down on the edge of hallway, the barracks where I had had just come from behind me. I pulled my brother's letter out of my jacket pocket.

 _Dear Ellie, Firstly, Georgia, in a nutshell, is hell. It's so damn hot here, I feel like I'm about to melt. It'll probably be worse over where you are, but I need to complain to someone! Secondly, we flew the other day; jumping out of a plane is probably the best thing I ever decided to do. On the bright side, we're moving out soon. I can't tell you where, but I'm just gonna say that if we end up heading your way, I'll be sure to try and let you know. Have you heard from Mama lately? From what I heard, she's hired a few extra farmhands to help her out. I hope they like scooping cow shit out of that barn stall! Anyway, I hope that you're doing well in Australia, and know that I'm praying for you. See you after all this shit is done with, sis. Love, Norman._

I read and reread my twin's letter as many times as I possibly could before my eyes stung from staring at the paper. I could practically hear his voice coming off the paper, and it made me miss him and the rest of my family even more. There was an aching feeling in my chest, right where my heart was.

"How's the family, Swartz?" Snafu's voice comes from right above my shoulder. I jump in fright and turn to narrow my eyes at him. Snafu is squatted right beside me, his lack of knowledge about personal space allowing him to sit _directly_ beside me.

"They're fine," I said shortly. "Could you back up?"

Snafu snorted, but did what I asked, moving back just two small steps. "Your brother's in the airborne, right?"

Had he been reading my letter over my shoulder? I frowned at him, "Did you read this?" Snafu didn't answer, just gave me a toothy grin. I stared at him, feeling the beginning of frustration welling inside of me. "You gonna answer the question?"

"Are you gonna answer my question?" He countered, that shit eating grin still on his face. For a moment, we just stared at each other; me with my frustrated frown and him with his smirk on his face. Finally, I shook my head and stood up, planning on moving to another corner. I was only walking for few second before Snafu was at my shoulder once more.

"You're a pretty creepy guy," I told him. "You know that right?" Snafu threw his head back and let out a loud, bark-like, laugh. The reaction caught me so off guard that I halted and looked up at him with raised eyebrows. Snafu locked eyes with me and smirked.

"If I had a dime for every time I heard that one, I'd own myself a big house back home _and_ a vacation house in Hawaii."

"That's not a good thing,"

Snafu laughed again, but this time it was much more subtle. "Whatever ya say, Swartz. Now, are you gonna answer my first question?"

"Fine; yes. My brother is in the airborne." I said.

He nodded, the shit-eating smile finally off of his face. "I read an article on them. They're all crazy fuckers, aren't they?"

For a moment, I blinked at him. But then I just kind of nodded. "I guess they'd have to be to want to jump outta planes. But the way my brother talk about it, you'd think it's the best thing in the world."

Snafu snorted. "Like I said: crazy fuckers." He started to walk away, heading back towards the barrack areas where K Company were assigned to sleep. He paused after a moment before turning right back around to face me. "Are you comin' or not? I wanna ask ya more 'bout that crazy fucker of a brother you've got."

Now it was my turn to laugh. "Well fine then; no need to be an ass about it." Snafu raised his eyebrows at me, feigning sheer shock.

"Why, Swartz, I believe that's the first time I ever heard you say a foul word."

"You clearly haven't been paying attention." I replied, making it back to him. I walked right past him and started for the barrack area without him. Snafu caught up in barely any time, silent as always. He matched pace with me, and we walked together all the way back to where the rest of our company were sitting, waiting for our first battle.


	6. 6: Cape Gloucester

The landing on Cape Gloucester was peaceful, seeing how no Japanese attacked us. This made me partially grateful, but also partially terrified. I met back up with Burgin and Snafu in no time, and as we marched to where we'd all be camping during the campaign, I got to take in the scenery of our temporary home.

Cape Gloucester was a jungle, and nothing but that. I remembered that I had once thought that Florida's forests around my home were thick, but that had absolutely nothing on this place. It was near impossible to walk without brush rubbing against your ankles and shins. My mind brought up poison ivy, and I shoved the thought back down. If this was poison ivy (if that even grew here) then we'd have to deal with it as it came our way.

Everyone set up hammocks between the trees. The trees here grew so close together that there were clusters of hammocks everywhere you turned. As usual, I had spot with Burgin and Snafu, but there were countless others who were dumbfounded with my presence.

I had gotten so used to the men of King ignoring me that when we were around men from _outside_ of King, these new men were astounded by the fact that I was there. I received disbelieving looks from almost everyone. I was walking back to my hammock when a group of guys from another company (I think it was H Company) called me over. I paused slightly before exhaling and walking over to them.

The men who called me over were friendly looking enough. One was taller with curly brown hair and big blue eyes, another was shorter than him with darker skin and black hair and brown eyes. The third was taller than both of them with curly brown hair and hard muscles on his shoulders and arms.

"What's your name?" The blue eyed one asked the second I got close enough.

"Swartz," I said.

"I'm Leckie," He replied. He pointed to his two companions. "This is Runner and Chuckler."

I snorted slightly. "Are those your real names?"

"Almost everyone's got a nickname, Swartz," Chuckler replied loudly. He had a cigarette dangling from his mouth that slurred some of his speech. "Don't you worry though; we'll find you one."

"A nickname?" I repeated, not sure if I trusted these strangers with that kind of power. If these guys were anything like Sheridan or Trager, I'd get a nickname like "Skirt", "Bitch", or worse, "Gash". I was about to tell them that I was fine with being called by my own name when another friend of theirs came up. He introduced himself as Hoosier and shook my hand enthusiastically.

"I heard a rumor a few hours ago 'bout a woman corpsman being with King Company." Hoosier said, grinning at me. "I just thought they were bullshitting me."

I found myself smiling back at him. "Not bullshit. Here I am, in the flesh."

"King Company, huh?" Runner repeated, narrowing his dark eyes and smirking slightly. I glanced over my shoulder to see some of the men from King watching our exchange with narrowed eyes. Sheridan, Perkins, and Trager were among them. I turned back to the new men I had just met.

"I was on my way to sick call." I told them. "I have to go stock up on med supplies."

"Ma'am, yes ma'am," Leckie responded. His words were met by a small bit of amused snorts and I said goodbye to them. As I walked away, I heard Hoosier ask the rest of them how the hell I got to be there with them. "My guess is it was a boat." Leckie said. Laughter met that and I smiled to myself as I walked away.

Later that day, after a few patrols went out to search the area, Burgin told me that he heard some of the guys calling me the Queen of King. I choked on my ration when I heard that. "Is that an actual thing that's going around?" I asked.

Burgin laughed himself silly at my reaction. Snafu, always a quiet presence, broke it to join in on the amusement. When they were finished, Burgin pretended to wipe a tear from his eyes. "I like it. You _are_ the only girl with us. We're in a company named King. See how it fits?"

"You're not the one who'll have to live with it," I pointed out.

"You could have my name," Snafu said with a snort. "'Situation Normal, All Fucked Up'."

"I'm still not convinced that your name is a compliment." I said, raising an eyebrow at him. Snafu rolled his eyes and finished the rest of his ration can. He finished it right on time, right as the rain started to pour down from above. It fell so hard, so fast that everyone was soaked to the bone instantly. I found my raincoat and slipped it on, but that didn't do a lot for my head.

The rain continued for hours, as the sky went from pink to black. The rain clouds blocked out any stars, as did the thick canopy of tree branches above us. There was a faint boom of thunder every now and then, but I didn't see any sort of lightning. Maybe that was because of trees above us, or some other reason. One problem I ran into was that my med kits needed to be kept dry. I put them inside of my hammock, zipping up the web of fabric that would keep out any bugs and, hopefully, rain water.

I had just finished putting my med kits into the safety of my hammock when I heard the cry that Japanese were attacking. I leaped to my feet, straining my eyes against the dark. But I couldn't see anything. I could really only see the immediate trees around me and the faint silhouettes of the men around me. Burgin and Snafu were nowhere to be seen.

Gunfire started up like thunder from somewhere in front of me. I turned around and grabbed my med kits before attaching them to my hips. There was fighting, and they were going to need me. I hurried towards the sounds of fighting right as I heard a desperate cry for a corpsman. I charged right towards him, whoever he was.

The man injured was bleeding from a stomach wound. I quickly slid to a stop beside him and for a moment, I stared blankly at the wound. The surrounding darkness didn't help, and for a long moment my training left my head.

"Please..." The man whimpered, just loud enough for me to hear him. "D-Don't let me die..."

A white-hot wave of protectiveness rushed over me like a wave. I steeled my stomach and strained my eyes against the darkness, forcing myself to see the gaping holes in the man's belly. I unzipped a med kit and pulled out a sulfa packet before sprinkling it onto the bullet wounds. Rain continued its merciless downpour and the sound of gunfire continued on.

"Sit up," I ordered, pulling the man into a sitting position so that I could see his back. When I saw the exit wounds, I let out a faint sigh of relief and sprinkled some more sulfa powder into his back. I pulled up his shirt roughly, accidentally tearing it slightly. I heard another cry for a corpsman from farther away. Gritting my teeth, I bound the bullet holes in this man before tagging him for help. He didn't have time to thank me before I ran off in the direction of the call for a corpsman.


	7. 7: Ack Ack

"Swartz!"

My head snapped up at the sound of my name. The temporary sick call we had here on the island was completely filled with men trying to heal from burns, bullet holes, sprained and broken bones. We were lucky that no one had lost a limb yet. But, according to the more experienced corpsman who were in Guadalcanal, the men were bound to lose some kind of body part at some point.

I tuned to whoever spoke my name and saw a familiar face. The man was our new commander of King, and so far, I hadn't gotten to meet him. But judging from the way some of the men talked about him, he seemed like a good guy.

He waked towards me with an air of confidence that somehow made me calmer just by him being there. He stuck out his hand for me to shake. "My name's Andrew Haldane, but you might've heard some of the guys calling me Ack Ack."

Now that he mentioned it, I had heard that name around, but I never had any idea who they were talking about. I told him that. Haldane gave me a broad smile that showed off bright and even teeth.

"Yeah, well, I figured since we're in the company and we haven't met yet, it'd be a pretty important thing for us to do." Haldane said. He had a way of speaking that made everything he said sound polite. "Where're you from, corpsman?"

"Florida,"

"Any big city I would know?"

"Nope; I'm from a tiny farm town up in the northern part."

Haldane nodded, taking in this information. "Any family?"

"Just my parents and my twin brother." I said. "He's with the Airborne." Haldane raised his eyebrows, clearly impressed.

"So one kid jumping out of planes and the other one patching up men. Your parents must be proud."

I thought about it for a moment and nodded in agreement with him. "I guess they must be." I said. Haldane didn't bring up the fact that I didn't know how my parents truly felt. He seemed too polite for that. Instead, he just smiled that bright smile.

"Well, corpsman, I'll let you get back to your men." Haldane said.

"My men?" I repeated, having never heard anyone call the men of King mine before. Haldane blinked at me and nodded.

"They're yours to take care of, all of them. In my mind, that makes them _your_ men." Haldane said that last bit a tad more firmly than before, but I didn't end up feeling threatened by him at all. I found myself slowly agreeing with him. I'd learn that this quiet and firm voice was his commanding voice, the voice that he'd use when telling the men his orders.

Haldane gave me one last kind smile before turning and leaving the sick call. I blinked at his retreating form and, after a brief second of feeling starstruck, went back to taking care of my men.

* * *

I became up to my knees in blood, pus, and rainwater each and every day. Mosquitoes ate me alive, so my hands, arms, shoulders, and neck were covered in tiny red dots where those little shits had bitten me. According to some of the men from Guadalcanal, bacon grease and oil could keep away the mosquitoes, but we didn't any either of those things.

"Ya know back home," Snafu said one day, scratching his feet. It looked like the beginnings of jungle rot was starting to form on them. "My mama used to smear swamp mud all over my bites whenever I got it bad."

"If you even try to slap mud on me, Snafu, I will punch you." I said to him. Snafu just got an evil look in his eye and I felt the immediate need to watch my back around him from now on.

"I bet your mama put some Cajun voodoo in that mud," Burgin said from where he was sprawled out on his hammock. Snafu looked over to him, pausing in his foot scratching. Burgin noticed him and grinned. "Who ever heard of mud that healed bug bites? I sure as hell haven't; have you Queen?"

"Stop calling me that," I said. Burgin laughed shortly. "And no, I haven't."

"Y'all are just ignorant as fuck when it comes to homestyle remedies," Snafu said. Burgin rolled his eyes and rolled over so that his back was towards us. Snafu raised his middle finger to Burgin's back. I laughed shortly, and Snafu turned his intense blue gaze back on me. "I ain't bullshittin' you, Queen. I swear it that mud helps bug bites."

I gave him a mock glare. "Since when did you start calling me Queen?"

"Since everyone's been callin' you that, _Queen_." Snafu deadpanned. "And you're the corpsman so shouldn't ya know about the wonders of home remedies?"

"I highly doubt that mud is on the Marines' list of medicine," I deadpanned right back at him. Snafu blinked and rolled his eyes.

"You don't want it, fine. But don't start complainin' when more of those bugs gnaw on your skin."

I frowned at him. "Thanks for putting that image in my head, Snafu."

"You're welcome, Queen." He shot back, getting that look on his face that told me that he won the argument. I shook my head at him and, out of the corner of my eye, saw that Burgin's back was shaking with silent laughter.

* * *

There are more Japanese attacks for the next few nights. Haldane gathered up King at some point and told everyone how because the Japs liked to fight dirty, we needed to fight dirty too. He paused before adding that he also needed to take care of each other as one might take care of a brother or sister. The second he said the word sister, several of the men glanced over to me. Haldane nodded in my direction and dismissed us after that.

"Looks like you're on Ack Ack's good side, Queen." Burgin said after the meeting. I nodded in agreement, not sure what to say to that. I was sure that Haldane just said that because, no doubt, someone told him about my hectic experience at basic training. King Company needed to be a secure unit if we were all going to make it out alive. We couldn't be fighting amongst ourselves when we had Japs to fight. I said this to Burgin on our way back to our post.

Burgin shrugged and Snafu frowned slightly, glancing at me with an odd expression in his blue eyes. I thought about asking, but knew for a fact that Snafu wouldn't tell me a damn thing. So I just kept my mouth shut.


	8. 8: The Setting Sun

A blood-curdling scream pierced through the humid and stuffy air. Gunfire rang all around my head, a few Marines a few feet away and returning the enemy fire. I leapt over a large amount of brush to get to the screams. I skidded to a halt for a moment to avoid getting my head shot. But then a fellow Marine started to return the fire, covering me so that I could continue on my way.

I finally made it to the wounded man, only to find his arms blown off and that he was missing most of his face. I grit my teeth as I took in the bright red, pulsing, muscle and blood that would've normally rested underneath the skin. The man was already laying in a pool of dark dark red blood. His cries were starting to get weaker. He wasn't going to make it. I injected a needle of morphine into the man's neck, anything to numb the pain. He stopped crying out and moving a minute later.

That was something they never told you about in training to become a corpsman: how it felt when someone died right underneath your hands.

Before I could properly grief the Marine, yet another cry out for help sounded and I launched myself towards the wounded man. My job made it so that I never got a day off, or even a wink of sleep. The Japanese attacking us had been so relentless that I was now going on my fortieth hour without sleep.

I skidded to a stop beside the wounded man; a small man with a rat-like face who I didn't recognize. I had realized a while ago that I didn't recognize a lot of the men who I helped, all of these injured men sort of sprang up out of nowhere during the heat of battle. I patched up the rat-like man and continued on my way until the battle was finished.

After several weeks on this living hell of an island, the Marines were called back to retreat. We had gotten whatever it was that we had needed and it was time to give those fighting a well deserved break. The moment that the announcement was made, I actually saw some men who I had trained with start to cry with relief. I had let out a massive sigh and had felt the pricks of tears sting my eyes, but I didn't allow myself to cry in front of these men.

It wasn't until the ship that was taking us arrived to come and get us were we told where we were going now. We had all assumed that we'd be going back to Australia, so it was a shock when we were told that we were going to another God forsaken island called Pavuvu.

Everyone crowded each other on the ship, we were all sitting on the deck, men from each company squished next to someone they had never met before. I found myself lucky enough to be smack dab between Snafu and Burgin.

The sun beat down on us mercilessly. I had closed my eyes almost the second we got settled, but the exhaustion from barely sleeping for the past several days was finally hitting me like a freight train. Soon my head was bobbing slightly against my chest and back up as I struggled to get comfortable.

Snafu tapped me lightly on the shoulder from where he was sitting beside me. I turned to look at him, finally opening my eyes and knowing just how exhausted I probably looked to him. Snafu locked his light eyes with mine and shrugged. "If you're tired, ya can sleep on me."

I blinked at him, not expecting the offer to be delivered so bluntly. Before he could take back his offer for any reason, I leaned down until my head rest on his thigh. I felt him stiffen his body underneath me, but after a while he relaxed again. I closed my eyes, the now familiar heat of the sun beating down on me. I was halfway asleep when I heard Snafu start to talk to Burgin. I didn't give a shit what it was they were talking about and allowed myself to finally relax.

* * *

We arrived on the island of Pavuvu that evening. The battered and exhausted Marines disembarked the ship and we discovered our next project: make this island livable.

"Are you fuckin' with me?" Snafu asked Ack Ack when our commander broke the news to us. Ack Ack laughed shortly but shook his head.

"No, I'm not fucking with you." It sounded so weird to hear Ack Ack of all people to curse, and I raised my eyebrows before I could even stop myself.

That night became one of the worst nights of my life. Because it wouldn't be safe to start setting up camp this late at night, we had to sleep right on the beach. All throughout the night, no one got a good night's sleep because of sand fleas, crabs that pinched you if you were in their way, or the sudden and random rainfalls that would occur in the wee hours of the morning. By morning, every single Marine I looked at looked like they wanted to commit murder.

The next day was filled with hacking at trees and clearing out spaces to live at. No matter where you went on our area of Pavuvu, the smell of rotten coconuts lingered. The sickly sweet smell clung to the air, clothes, and hell, it even clung to the very sand we were walking on. During a break for chow, I vented my frustrations to Burgin.

"If I smell another coconut, I swear I'm going to go insane." I said.

Burgin snorted with amusement. "Then I guess we're all gonna go crazy."

By the end of that first day, we had a suitable living space for the Marines living here. Ack Ack claimed a corner of the camp grounds for King Company to have by itself, and he allowed us to split up if we wanted. I quickly claimed a tent with Burgin and Snafu, with the man named De L'Eau joining us. There was still room for two more in here, but Snafu said something about how he didn't want it to get any more crowded, so he stood at the door to our tent and chased away anyone looking to join us.

We had dinner time early that night, as a "reward" for how well we made our new living space. I rolled my eyes when I heard this but didn't vocally object to the food that was fed. After chow time, a lot of the men went back to the tents to go straight to sleep, as we were all plenty exhausted. I watched some of them go before heading out to the beach.

When there was no one on it, the beach was a peaceful place. The only noise I could hear was the sound of the waves crashing onto the sand and the wind rustling the trees and shrubs behind me. I sat down on the sand, facing the setting sun. The sun was almost gone, just starting to dip below the horizon. The sky was stained pink around it, fading to dark orange and then to light purple. I stared at it, wondering why I had never stopped to look at something so simple like the sunset before.


	9. 9: Replacements

The feet of the men were officially my worst nightmare. On Pavuvu, there was very little in what was in abundance: rotten coconut and jungle rot. Any place that was damp on the men-whether it was an armpit or feet-would suddenly have large white boils that brought them limping to the sick call. My knife was mainly being used for ripping the damned things off.

Snafu himself got a bad case right along his heel. And because I shared a tent with him, I was stuck in the tent with the smell that was coming off of it.

"You sure you don't want me to just rip it off?" I asked him one evening after chow. Snafu, after limping all the way back to his cot, shot me a glare.

"I don' need help, Swartz." Snafu snapped back in what sounded like a growl. "I can get it myself."

"Then do it," I countered, watching him from my cot. Burgin and De L'Eau watched back and forth, amused grins on their faces. They enjoyed watching us go at it far too much. Snafu noticed them watching and glared at the pair of them before falling back on his cot. I met De L'Eau's eyes and I shrugged, an amused smile on my face. I gave it two days before Snafu either took care of his own feet. He was far too proud to ask for my help.

Right before the two days were up, I found Snafu clawing at the jungle rot with his fingers. He had his belt between his teeth and was biting down on it every time the pain got to be too much. Which looked to be the whole time. I left with a queasy stomach, hoping that Snafu would come to his senses and ask for help.

That evening before chow, Snafu limped to me with a very bloody heel and held it out for me. I sat him down and gingerly took his ankle in one hand while I wiped away the blood with a rag. Whatever he had tried doing to his foot, he had only gotten half of the jungle rot off. I told him this and he scowled. "I know that. That's why I'm comin' to you." He growled.

I tried my hardest not to tell him "I told you so." But it was hard so in the end I ended up giving him a look that said it. Snafu glared hard at me. I whipped out my knife and scraped off the rest of the jungle rot before he could say anything else. He let out a string of curses that made me shake from holding in the laughter.

It really wasn't long before a shooting range was made on the outskirts of our camp. An older man called Gunny was in charge of it. I didn't talk to him much, if at all, but I did his private parts several occasions. Every time it rained, Gunny would strip down to nothing and start cleaning himself as best as he could while the rain lasted.

About two days into our stay on Pavuvu, a loud and bloodcurdling scream could be heard coming from the shooting range. Gunny, Ack Ack, and Hillbilly Jones carried Trager between them. The Marine who had helped bully me in basic training had a very large and dark red spot on his side, showing where he had been shot. "Swartz, can you help?" Ack Ack asked me upon sighting me, still in that polite tone of his. I ran to go get the head corpsman and he followed with a small army of corpsmen right behind him.

Trager was laid on a makeshift table inside the medical tent, where almost every single corpsman had to help with the surgery to get the bullet out of him. The head corpsman kept me in there, telling me that my hands were small enough to fit inside of the holes left in Trager. I gritted my teeth at this knowledge, but ended up forcing my hands into the dark red mush to retrieve the bullet.

It took almost fifteen hours of nonstop surgery. First the bullet had to be fished out, then the major wounds had to be taken care of, and then the minor wounds, and then it could be disinfected and stitched up. By the end of it all, I was exhausted once again and ready for a long sleep. My hands were stained red from fingertips to halfway up my lower arms. I tried not to think about how I had just plunged my hands into someone's body just to fish around for a bullet. I entered the tent, the temperature going down about ten degrees. It was still hot as hell.

Snafu, De L'Eau, and Burgin were sprawled out on their cots, Snafu and Burgin shirtless while De L'Eau wore his white shirt. I ignored all three of them and collapsed down into my cot, exhaustion hitting me with full force. Snafu glanced up at me and smirked. "Well, don't you look beautiful this mornin', Queen."

"Screw you, Snafu." I growled softly out of tiredness. De L'Eau chuckled to himself; he looked to be writing a letter over in his corner. I closed my eyes and sighed, ready to finally sleep for the first time in fifteen hours. Snafu and Burgin were talking amongst themselves, but they were doing it in quiet voices. I was only laying there for a few minutes, almost about to drift off when the tent flap moved and more people entered our confined space.

"Does this tent belong to K Company?" A loud voice asked. I opened my eyes just a tad and glanced at three replacements before closing my eyes. And then the speaker spotted me. "Whoa, what's a _dame_ doing here?"

I frowned slightly at the word but said nothing, still trying to sleep. Burgin said something to the replacements, but the speaker was still baffled that I was there.

"Seriously, why the hell is a girl here?"

I sat up in bed and glared at all three men. "I'm here because my job is to save your asses whenever you mess up. Now I just got out of a fifteen hour surgery and I'm exhausted. So do me a favor, and get the fuck out of here." The boy with flaming red hair stared at me with wide eyes. I laid back down and closed my eyes. I could hear Snafu's muffled laughter coming from his cot.

Burgin snorted with amusement and I could feel his blue eyes on me. "That sleeping beauty is our corps-woman, Swartz. Some call her the Queen of King. Don't piss her off, 'cause she gets mean as hell." I rolled over on my cot, turning my backs to them. De L'Eau chuckled once more. "We still love her though." Burgin said.

"Take the conversation outside, please." I said, keeping my eyes closed.

"Ya heard the Queen," De L'Eau said. I heard him standing up and shuffling towards the replacements. "I'll find your tents." The tent door opened once more and the boots shuffled away. Finally, the door closed for the last time. I groaned in relief and stretched out. Burgin and Snafu continued their hushed conversation and I was finally able to drift off into a light sleep.


	10. 10: Tensions

I managed to sleep until chow time that evening. Burgin shoved my shoulders to get me to wake up, and I had retaliated by swatting him a few times. Burgin had just laughed and waited for me to wake up so that we could go get some food. Snafu and De L'Eau were already there apparently. By the time I was awake enough to go, Burgin was dramatically tapping his foot at me.

Chow, as per usual, was some kind of gruel that looked like it had been thrown together at the last minute. I took a spoonful of the oatmeal-looking concoction and found that it tasted like a very bland oatmeal without any kind of additives. I squeezed myself between Burgin and De L'Eau with Snafu right across from us. I got a glimpse of his foot and saw that he had wrapped bandages on it while I had slept.

"Your foot feelin' better?" I asked him. Snafu gave me a look as if he was trying to figure out whether or not I was making fun of him before giving me a stiff nod.

"Look there Queen, you got some cooperation there." Burgin said with an unnecessary amount of snark. Snafu held up his middle finger at Burgin right as our commanding officer strolled by our table.

"That's no way to treat your fellow Marine." Ack Ack said as he approached. Snafu put the finger away and Burgin shook with silent laughter from beside me. Ack Ack looked around our table briefly before settling his gaze on Snafu. "Shelton, take some of the replacements to go clean the oil drums. They all look like they could use some hard work." He looked over his shoulder in the direction of the replacements. I followed his gaze and immediately recognized the boy with flaming red hair from earlier and his two friends. They were sitting with a member from H Company.

Snafu turned and got a good look at the new people before giving Ack Ack a nod and leaving to go take care of the new guys. Ack Ack bid the rest of us farewell before departing to sit with the commanding officers. Snafu finally managed to herd the new guys away.

"Well, he's going to be torturing them for the next few hours." De L'Eau said before scooping a very big spoonful of chow into his mouth. "What do y'all want to do now?"

"I don't know about you two, but I've got some important things to do." Burgin announced, shoveling the last of his food into his mouth. "Letters to write. My mama's mad at me now for not writing as much as I should."

"Can't be doing that now." I said, giving Burgin a sly look. He frowned at me and roughly nudged my shoulder, causing me to bump hard into De L'Eau. We both shouted after Burgin as he walked away towards the tent. I scooted away from De L'Eau, putting an appropriate amount of distance between us again. "Have you heard about the big drop into Europe yet?"

De L'Eau shrugged. "I heard some of the guys talking about it when I was showing the replacements around. But I don't give a shit about it. Why do you ask?"

"My brother was supposed to participate." I said. De L'Eau blinked and gave me a sympathetic look.

"Have you heard any word on him yet?" He asked.

"No."

When I had first heard about the major drop on Europe, my first thought had been of Norman and if he had made it. My twin brother was jumping out of a perfectly good plane and into enemy territory; I'd be stupid not to worry about him. The only way I'd know if he died was if my mother sent the news.

De L'Eau patted my wrist as comforting as he possibly could. I appreciated the effort, but I didn't think that De L'Eau was the person who best understood what I was going through. I finished my chow and said goodbye to De L'Eau before heading off to go and find Snafu.

The oil drums were near the back of camp, past all of the tents and where the worst of the rotten coconut smell resided. I choked slightly on the smell before fixing myself. Snafu wasn't that hard to find, perched on top of the hood of a jeep with the three new replacements bent over the drums and struggling with task. I managed to a snippet of what Snafu was telling them and I had to stop myself from laughing out loud.

"Fuck that shit. I scrub drums for no man."

I walked up and leaned against the jeep. Snafu took two seconds to see me and he gave me a broad smile. "Hey there, Queen." He greeted me quite cheerfully. The blond replacement shot up straight from his oil drum and stared at me. The other two got up more slowly but still stared. Snafu caught them looking and yelled, "What? Y'all ain't ever see a girl before?"

The blond gave Snafu a glare and didn't answer, just bent right back down to continue scrubbing. I snorted with amusement despite myself.

"Can we at least get a break?" The red head asked.

I frowned at him. "Why are you bothering with asking him?" I asked.

Now I had all three replacements' attention. "He's in charge of us." The brunette said.

"No I ain't." Snafu replied, taking a drag of his cigarette. I nodded with agreement.

"This isn't his detail." I explained. The blond threw the scrubbing brush into the drum. I took the opportunity to look up at Snafu. "You got a minute?"

Snafu looked at first like he was about to say no, that torturing these new guys was way too fun. But he must've seen the look in my face because a second later, all amusement was off of his face and he gave me a grave nod. He moved over on the hood, just giving me enough room to sit beside him. I crawled onto the hood and explained what happened in Europe. And what could've happened to Norman.

Anyone, whether it was these replacements or our tentmates or any other Marine, could say what they wanted about Snafu. He was an ass and he acted like he knew almost everything, but he was an amazing audience and he listened to me without interrupting or judging me for my worry. As I spoke, the three replacements huddled together nearby to talk amongst themselves and give Snafu dirty looks.

Snafu was silent until the very end and when I was finished, he gave me a nod. "I hadn't heard 'bout the Europe invasion yet. Sorry 'bout your brother." Snafu said. He paused before saying, "If he's anything like you, though, I wouldn't be too worried. You're tough as nails and I bet my ass that he is too."

I blinked at him, taken aback by his words. But I smiled anyway and gave him a rough nudge with my elbow. "Thanks, I guess." I said. Snafu snorted at me and turned back to the replacements.

"Y'all better be gettin' back to work now!" He shouted at them.

"I thought we weren't your detail!" The blond shouted right back. Snafu's eyes narrowed into slits and looked like he was about to jump down from the jeep to start fighting. But the red head took a quick step forward and got between the two men, glancing back and forth between them. Snafu tore his gaze from the blond to the red head and glared at him for a moment before getting off of the jeep.

Snafu looked up at me. "Ya coming, Queen?" He asked. I blinked at got off, landing near him. Snafu took a final drag from his cigarette before tossing it thoughtlessly to the ground. As he started to walk away, the red head hurried to stomp on the lit cigarette before it caught fire to the dry grass. The red head and I caught each other's gaze after that and we blinked at each other before I turned away to follow Snafu.


	11. 11: Movie Night

That night we had a "special treat": a movie showing, one of the newer ones from the States. Right after chow, the Marines were herded to the movie "theater" where the movie would be shown. I sat down between Snafu and Burgin with De L'Eau on Burgin's other side. De L'Eau had claimed to be an expert on movies and theaters as a whole and had pulled the three of us along until we were in the perfect spot to sit and view the movie.

"What's the difference between a seat in the front and one in the back?" I asked as De L'Eau moved around and tried to find the best spot. De L'Eau gave me a look that could've also been a reaction to someone killing puppies.

"There's a shit load of a difference, Queen!" De L'Eau insisted. "When you're up in front, the screen is too big and you could miss stuff and the ends of the screen. But if you're in the back, the screen could be too small and you could miss fine details about the film."

"Then let's find seats in the exact middle and call it a day." Burgin said. Snafu snorted and lit a cigarette from the rear of the group. De L'Eau finally found some good seats and made room for the rest of us. We managed to sit down, much to the relief of the rows of Marines who had been watching us circle the theater looking for the right seats. As we settled into the seats, I spotted the replacements from earlier sit down next to H Company, and then I saw Leckie, Hoosier, Chuckler, and Runner close to them. Hoosier saw me glancing over and gave me a friendly wave and smile.

We had to wait a few minutes for the sun to fully set before the movie could start. De L'Eau spent the time giving us trivia on cinema until Snafu shouted at him to shut up. De L'Eau gave Snafu a good look at his middle finger before continuing.

Once it was dark enough for the black and white movie to show, someone started projecting the movie. It wasn't until the title came on screen did we know what it was we were watching. _For Whom the Bell Tolls._ I vaguely remembered my own mother talking about right before I left for basic training. It must've just came out for the public.

Even though the movie was supposed to be a serious movie about an American on a top secret mission to blow up a bridge, you never would've known by the way the Marines were reacting to it. The second the lead actress came on screen the men started to wolf whistle and yell out rude jokes at the actress's expense.

"How am I friends with y'all?" I asked no one in particular right after Snafu cried out to the main character that he should and see "if she was blond down there."

"Because we're fucking hilarious, Queen." Snafu replied. Burgin let out a loud shout of agreement before leaning his shoulder heavily against me. De L'Eau loudly shushed us, continuing to watch the movie with an intense look of concentration of his face. I rolled my eyes at my friends and tried to watch the movie again, but it was a little hard considering that every few seconds someone else would make a rude remark and the Marines around me would laugh their asses off again.

I could pretend to be annoyed all I wanted. Truth was that I was immensely entertained and several of the jokes that were made were actually quite funny. Every now and then I'd find myself snorting at something someone else was crying out. When the main leads starting kissing heavily on screen, Snafu called out to the male lead (as if he could actually hear him) to shove his tongue down the girl's throat.

That one made me snort without meaning to. It wasn't even funny, but Snafu heard me anyway and whipped his head towards me to stare at me with a joyous expression on his face. I ignored him while feeling my face heat up under his stare.

"Who's all high and mighty now?" He asked me, acting exasperated. I gave him a mock glare and turned back to the screen, trying to put focus back on the movie. Snafu nudged my shoulder extra hard and I accidentally bumped into Burgin. My face heated up without my wanting it to and Snafu was chuckling darkly to himself. But he eventually dropped the subject with a wolfish smile on his face.

The ending of the movie was almost upon us when I heard a hiss nearby. I turned towards it and saw Hillbilly Jones, one of the lieutenants, standing next to the end of the row. He waved his hand at me, trying to get me to follow him. Snafu and Burgin stopped making jokes long enough to look concerned. Even De L'Eau tore his eyes away from the screen to stare. I didn't meet any of their gazes as I got up and headed towards Hillbilly.

Hillbilly started towards the back of the theater area when I reached him and I had to hurry to keep up with him. "What's wrong, sir?" I asked him in a whisper, not wanting to disturb the other Marines.

"An urgent letter came in for you, Swartz." Hillbilly said bluntly as we left the theater.

A wave of icy cold swept over me and my first thought was of Norman. Did he die in that jump? Was he missing? Then I remembered my parents and felt even colder. Did something happen to them?

Hillbilly led me over to Ack Ack, where my commanding officer was holding the letter in his hands. My stomach lurched at the sight of it. Ack Ack gave me a sympathetic look and handed it over. Then he and Hillbilly moved far enough away to give me some privacy. I watched their backs for a long moment before turning down to the letter.

It was my mother's handwriting.

I swallowed, knowing that any news of Norman-if there was any at all-wouldn't become available until Mama got the news first and then pass it on to me. If something happened to Norman, I'd have to wait a long time before knowing. I tore open the letter.

The harsh light above my head made the black letters pop out a little more violently. I blinked at them for a second as the sound of applause came from the theater. The movie must've finished.

 _My dear Eleanor,_ the letter started and I could imagine Mama's voice saying everything written down. _It is with heavy heart that I write these words. I'm not sure how to tell you over letter, but if you didn't find out from me, you wouldn't know until this horrible war is over. Your father passed away in his sleep last night. After all he's been through, it is the best way he could've gone. But it still makes my heart ache when I think of him. I'm writing two letters, for you and your brother. I hope the letters reach you both in good time._

With burning eyes, I looked at the date at the top of the letter. This had been written almost three weeks ago. I still had more of the letter to go, but I quickly stuffed it into my pants pocket and hurried to my tent, not wanting to be found by the others sitting underneath this light. Once I was back in my safe tent, I continued reading.

 _Remember that your father loved you so much, Eleanor. I'm sure he is watching out for you from heaven right now. And please, be careful, wherever you are. Love, Mama_

I laid down on my cot and laid with my back to the tent flap. It opened up a few minutes later anyway. There was a pause in footsteps, as I'm sure my friends were trying to assess the situation. Without a word, I grabbed the letter and held it out for whoever was closer to take it. Someone did and soon I heard the sounds of hushed hisses of sympathy. I closed my eyes tight and buried my face into the pillow, even though it smelled of fucking rotten coconuts.

Someone patted my hip as they passed, probably Burgin or Snafu, as their cots were past mine. Then someone else brushed their fingers on my shoulders. There was the sounds of the men getting into their cots and settling down. I waited until I heard three different sets of snoring before letting out a shuddering sob.


	12. 12: Ready, Aim, Fire

My friends moved around me the next few days unnaturally quiet. It was like they didn't want to give me any more reason to feel sad. They acted as if they were walking on glass and after a whole day of it, I told them in the tent that they didn't have to act like I was about to burst into tears. My friends had sort of looked at each other but agreed anyway.

No one else knew about my dad dying, and I didn't make it common knowledge. It was fine enough with Burgin, Snafu, and De L'Eau knowing. They were my friends and, although they were sad for me and allowing me time to grieve in my own weird way, they understood why I wanted everything to keep quiet.

In the end, there wasn't any time to tell anyone even if I had wanted to. We all got orders to go to some place called Peleliu. According to Ack Ack, we needed to secure an airfield near the beaches. I had been sitting next to De L'Eau when we heard, and I had heard him swallow loudly but I pretended not to have noticed his fear.

I got a letter from Norman the day before we were scheduled to ship out. I quickly tore it open and saw that the date was from a week and a half ago. If I was right about my way of thinking, then he sent this right before jumping into Normandy.

 _Dear Ellie, I hope you're as safe as I am. I've heard about some of the battles over there and it scares me to think that my little twin is over there by herself. I hope you're sitting on the deck of a ship or, even better, lounging on a beach at -_

That had been blacked out by the censors. I heaved a small sigh and continued.

 _Although I can't allow myself to think about the danger you're in, that doesn't mean you shouldn't tell me. Please tell me, because my fellow paratroopers are extremely curious about a female corpsman with the Marines. According to Strand, there's a female medic somewhere with another paratrooping company, but I haven't seen her yet. If I do, I'll be sure to tell her about you. She'd probably be interested to hear about another lady among the men._

 _What was I even talking about? Oh yeah; tell me about your adventures over in paradise. Or at least tell Mama and Dad; Mama told me how it takes forever for your letters to get to her. And before I forget, go out and get a tan. You were quite pale the last time I saw you._

 _Your loving brother, Norman_

I blinked at the letter, trying to absorb everything. The first thing I thought about was how Norman didn't know about Dad when he wrote this. When did he find out? I figured that Mama's letters traveled to him than me, seeing how letters from Florida to New York to England would go much faster than from Florida to California to Hawaii to Australia to me.

The second thing I thought about was the fact that there was another female medic out there in Europe, doing exactly what I was doing. The thought filled me with a weird sense of pride, knowing that someone else was just as crazy as me. I folded up the letter carefully and put my brother's words into the pocket next to my heart.

The next morning, we all were once again crowded onto ships to head to the island called Peleliu. We were only sailing for a few hours when the shrill whistle sounded and told us that it was time to get into our assigned U-boats. Everyone made a move towards the boats, and I managed to shove in a very brief goodbye to Burgin and De L'Eau.

Snafu looked like he had wanted to say something to me, but the shrill whistle had sounded again and he quickly left with only a, "Careful out there, Queen."

I went to my U-boats and crouched down, Trager and Sheridan with me. But they completely ignored me, both looking white as ghosts and terrified for what lies ahead. When the boat started to rock and churn forward to leave the ship, I closed my eyes and started praying.

The U-boat finally crashed into the water and water sprayed us from over the top. The deafening sounds of gunfire and explosions filled the air and what felt like small earthquakes shook us to our cores, even though we were all in boats in the middle of the water.

My mind drifted over to Taylor James, my friend who had left our tiny hometown to join the Navy right after high school. He had been the person closest to me, other than Norman, the person who would've been able to talk me out of any kind of decision. I'm sure he'd be able to talk me out of joining the Marines. A sudden memory of the last time I spoke to him appeared in my mind.

We had been sitting up in the hayloft back home on the farm. We had just graduated high school and Taylor would be leaving for basic training that Friday. "What made you think Navy?" I had asked. "There's Army, Marines, a whole lot more. Why Navy?"

Taylor was chewing on a bit of straw, the tiny stem hanging out of his mouth like a cigarette. He narrowed his eyes and looked to have been thinking about it for a while before he answered. "I don't know really. My dad was in the Navy when he was our age. So I guess that has somethin' to do with it. What 'bout you?"

"Daddy was Army," I said. "And after seeing what happened to him, I don't think I'd turn to the Army. Or any branch of the military."

And yet here I am, I thought grimly.

A large splash of salt water landed right on top of me, causing me to flinch. I looked up and caught the eye of Sheridan. His face, usually so aggressive and hostile towards me, had turned sympathetic and he gave me one firm nod. I returned it, setting my jaw. We were both going into the war zone; there was no time now to be petty enemies.

My thoughts turned to Burgin, De L'Eau, and Snafu, who were all in a different U-boat. I sent up a silent pray to both God and Daddy that the three of them would be able to make it out of this fight without a scratch. And then, with what felt like a burst in the U-boat's engine, the U-boat I was on finally landed on the beach.

"Get out! Get out now!" Someone screamed, and the men surrounding me started to do just that. I followed, trying my hardest not to visibly shake from fear. I grabbed onto the hot metal edge of the U-boat and heaved myself over and towards the white-hot sand of the beach. I landed with a thud in that white sand, and the fine grains instantly coated onto my body.

"Keep moving!"

I jerked myself into action, crawling up the beach. Jets of sand shot up all around me, where the Japanese were firing their bullets. All around me, men were crawling towards the line of jungle trees. But some of them were being stopped on account of being killed by the Japs. Bursts of red mist would explode from their backs, heads, showing me when they got hit. Or when they were killed.

One man, having gotten hit in the arm, screamed bloody murder for a corpsman. I crawled as fast as I could to him, inside of my head going over the list of remedies to any kind of bullet wound. I stopped at the man and started to check his arm, but he was thrashing it uncontrollably.

"Hey!" I shouted at him, struggling to get a good look at his arm. "Marine!" I shouted again. The unknown soldier made brief eye contact with me before a Japanese bullet came out of nowhere and buried itself into his face.

I flinched away, a swooping feeling going on in my gut. I gritted my teeth and forced myself to continue on. I made it to the tree line, where I quickly ran into the familiar face of Perkins. We locked eyes briefly before I turned away.

"Have you seen Sheridan and Trager?" Perkins asked me in a low voice.

"Not since the boats," I answered, panting for breath. "Have you seen Burgin and Snafu?"

"They were in my boat," Perkins said. "Haven't seen 'em since." The sound of gunfire was fading and Perkins peeked over the top of the ridge. "We better go find the rest of 'em." I nodded in agreement and followed him out of our ditch.

We were together for a brief time before someone called out for a corpsman. I hurried away from Perkins and towards the man, leaving my new companion no choice but to follow me.

The man crying out was someone from a different company. I didn't recognize him. But his shoulder was dangling off at a weird angle. Perkins muttered, "Fuck," behind me as I got closer.

"What happened?" I asked, gently taking his limp arm in my hands.

"Got blasted back," He said shortly, his teeth gritted in pain. His shoulder was dislocated and he had a cut on his temple. I checked out the cut and saw that it'd be fine; he was lucky considering everyone else out there.

"Okay," I said slowly. "I have to put your arm back in your socket. It's gonna hurt."

"How much?" He asked. I didn't even answer as I popped the arm back into his shoulder. He lifted his head and screamed out in pain. "Holy shit! What the fuck?" From behind me, Perkins was saying something very similar.

"Try to keep your arm as still as possible, okay." I said, trying to get this man to understand. He nodded grimly and stood up, keeping his newly fixed arm close to his chest. I didn't have a splint for him to use, and I hoped that we'd be able to find one soon.

Perkins and I crawled around for what felt like several minutes. We'd stop to help someone, hide in a shallow ditch, help someone else, duck behind trees, and then crawl around some more. "Where's this airfield supposed to be?" I shouted at Perkins over the sound of gunfire. He didn't answer right away and swallowed, causing me to stare hard at him. "You don't know?" I asked in a shrill voice that didn't sound like my own.

"I don't have a map of the fucking area, Swartz!" Perkins shouted right back. I wanted to rage at him that the middle of a battle was not the place to get lost, but I had to suppress it. This was not the time to start fighting my own comrade. Perkins must've been thinking the same thing, because he set his jaw and looked around, trying to find any familiar faces. By the faint sound of gunfire, we had managed to get a little way away from the main fight.

I led the way out of our ditch only for dirt to fly up in my face and blinding me. Perkins's hands grabbed at my waist and he pulled me back into the safety of the ditch. "Idiot," He muttered.

"Says the man who got us lost." I countered. Perkins glared at me but risked looking over the edge of the ditch. He came back down and reported, "I counted only one." He prepared his gun, ready to take aim really fast and kill the Jap who was holding us down. I had seen Perkins fire a weapon in basic and on Pavuvu. He was good at it.

Perkins sat up quickly and took aim with the gun. He had just pulled the trigger back once when another shot sounded and there was a burst of red from Perkins's face.


	13. 13: Every Breaking Wave

I jumped back the second Perkins's hot blood hit my face. I let out a scream without meaning to and I heard the sound of someone injured. It sounded like Perkins had managed to hit the Jap soldier after all. I hurried to Perkins to see if he was somehow still alive.

He was, miraculously. The bullet had torn right through the side of his face, starting the tear from the left corner of his mouth right back to where it had ripped off his earlobe. His eyes were wide and staring up at the sky, the look of terror frozen there. Adrenaline and shock was keeping him from feeling the pain right now, but in a few minutes time, he'd be wailing in agony.

I used a clean rag from my back pocket to wipe up the blood that was oozing from Perkins's face. He was blinking and still staring at the sky, in complete and utter shock so strong that he was in a daze. It wasn't until I injected him with the morphine needle did he actually start crying out. I shushed him in what I hoped was a calming voice, but my hands were slightly shaking.

"Wha-" Perkins started, but the start of the wound by his mouth stretched and tore slightly, and the words died in his immediate scream of pain. I shushed him again.

"Do not say anything, Perkins." I said in a quiet voice. I didn't know if there were any Japs still around. I could hear the moans from the one Perkins had shot getting quieter. "You could hurt yourself even more." Perkins locked eyes with me, tears starting to glisten in there. But his mouth turned into a thin line and he blinked. I took that as acceptance.

I finished cleaning the wound and placed gauze on it, keeping it on there and trying to make sure it wouldn't fall off. When I was satisfied with the bandages, I gave Perkins a firm nod but told him once more to try not to talk. I didn't want to see what would happen if his wound tore any more.

This time, I made sure the coast was clear before we set off. We passed the Japanese soldier who had shot Perkins, and he was finally dead, having died slowly from a bullet to his throat that had gone right through him. I looked away and Perkins and I started towards the faint sounds of gunfire as quickly and carefully as we could.

Perkins and I didn't even get a few feet past where we had been hiding before a tree right next to my head practically exploded as a bullet hit it. I shrieked loudly and tackled Perkins to the ground, who also let out a cry followed by a howl of pain as the wound tore slightly near his mouth. "Move!" I shouted at him as another bullet hit a tree just inches above my helmet. Perkins started moving towards a dip in the jungle floor and I followed.

We pressed ourselves into the small dip in the earth as more bullets flew directly over our heads. I gritted my teeth as I listened to that God-awful sound of bullets zipping past. Perkins had his eyes squeezed shut, fresh blood spotting his bandages right next to his mouth and his knuckles turning white as he clutched his gun. There was a sudden pause in the storm of bullets heading our way.

Did the Japanese soldier give up? I remembered what we had been told in basic training about the Japanese soldiers. How they were extremely honor bound and would kill themselves before giving up on killing us. No Japanese soldier would give up shooting so easily. My thoughts were confirmed when I heard footsteps coming right towards us.

Perkins's eyes snapped open and he shot up incredibly fast, much faster than I would've believed and opened fire. No bullets came back at him and when he finished and looked down to me, I knew he had killed the soldiers before they could kill us. Perkins waved his hand at me, silently signaling that the coast was clear.

Another three minutes later we finally found more Marines. One of them was dead on the ground, several bloody holes in his face and neck, telling me that shrapnel had hit him there. Another Marine was severely injured with tore legs with a scary pool of blood surrounding his legs. I recognized both him and the dead from H Company, and the other Marine was someone I actually knew from H.

"Chuckler?" I said. Chuckler looked up from the injured Marine and I stared at the bit of shrapnel sticking out of Chuckler's cheek. I instantly hurried forward and replaced Chuckler with taking care of the injured man. Perkins remained standing, aiming his gun out at the jungle in case any Japs came out to get us.

I took in the man's legs and wanted to squash the sinking feeling I suddenly had in my chest. The man's legs were completely blown open; I could see his arteries open and bleeding everywhere. I glanced over at Chuckler, who had been watching me intently. I gave him a quick shake of my head and Chuckler sucked in a harsh breath. I pulled out a morphine needle from one of my med kits and injected it into the injured man's exposed skin, giving him some kind of relief from the pain.

The man wasn't screaming. He seemed to have accepted the fact that he wasn't going to make it. Chuckler and I remained besides him until he finally closed his eyes for good.

Chuckler reached out and took the man's dog tags off and stuffed them into his pocket. When he looked back to me and Perkins, he shrugged. "I'm sending them off when we get home." I gave him a nod and looked over to the dead man behind us. His tags were missing too.

"Have you seen Leckie or Hoosier?" Chuckler asked. "Runner?"

"Haven't seen 'em," I told him. Chuckler's easy-going face went pale with worry. I continued. "Have you seen Snafu or Burgin?" Perkins tapped my shoulder hurriedly. I glanced up at him and he gave me of worried looking nod. I remembered. "Oh! Or even Trager and Sheridan?"

Unfortunately, Chuckler shook his head. "Haven't seen Snafu or Burgin. And I don't even know who those other guys are." From behind me, Perkins made a weird noise from the back of his throat. He sounded miserable.

I quickly introduced Chuckler and Perkins to each other. I quickly took out the shrapnel from Chuckler's face and used a tiny strip of medical tape to keep it closed.

We weren't able to find the others that day. The sun set while we were being trapped under enemy fire. Perkins was almost out of ammo and fell asleep almost instantly when Chuckler said we'd probably have to camp out here for the night. We were hiding in what looked like a half-dug foxhole in the jungle. It'd be safer to stay here for the night than to continue looking for our friends in the middle of the night.

Chuckler took the first watch, seeing as Perkins was so exhausted he was pretty much already asleep. "You get some sleep too, Queen. You're gonna need it for tomorrow."

"So are you," I said.

He blinked and gave me a half shrug. "I'll wake you up around midnight." He looked over at Perkins. "Let's let that poor bastard sleep." I smiled at that and closed my eyes, trying not to think about where the others were.

I sent up a silent pray to God, Dad, or anyone, to keep my friends, Chuckler's friends, and even Perkins's friends all safe.

* * *

The next morning, we mainly relied on the sound of gunfire growing louder to find the airfield. When Perkins and I reached the clearing right before the airfield started, we paused to assess the situation, making sure that it was as safe as it was going to be before heading onto the field. The sounds of gunfire had stopped a minute or two before we reached the edge of the airfield, so the main fight must've ended. I hoped so, otherwise Perkins, Chuckler and I were sitting ducks in the middle of this open airfield.

There was a building farther out that had bodies occupying it. I silently gave each of the men beside me a look before moving towards it, slowly and with extreme caution. Perkins, despite the fact that his face was probably causing him extraordinary pain, was still holding his gun at the ready. I had to give him that begrudgingly sense of admiration.

The people at the old building were our own. I recognized some of the men from King sitting there, letting me know that we had won the airfield like we had needed to. Sheridan and Trager were on guard duty together, and at first they aimed their weapons at us as we approached. But then they recognized us and they both ran out to meet us.

"Perkins!" Trager said with what couldn't be mistaken as anything but relief. His relief was off his face though when he saw the bright white bandages on his friend's face. Sheridan turned to stare at me.

"What happened to him?" Sheridan asked sharply.

"He got shot by a Jap sniper." I quickly explained. "The bullet went right from the corner of his mouth and took off his left earlobe; he'll have a wicked scar going across his face but he'll live as long as he gets off the frontline." At this, all three of them looked at me with slight alarm. I gave Perkins an apologetic look. "Sorry, Perkins; a wound like that is going to have to heal away from this place."

Perkins was blinking rapidly and he was giving Trager what looked like an apologetic look. Chuckler and I followed the three friends back to the building, trying not to barge in on their grieving. I noted that Trager and Perkins were standing very close to one another, and I couldn't help but remember all the other times I hadn't noticed before that those two were always by each other's side. I let out a sad sigh and tried not to think about how Perkins was going to be sent back to Australia, or maybe America itself.

I had to make the official report about Perkins needing to be sent back to Ack Ack. Where was he? I made it underneath the protection of the building and looked around, finding Ack Ack and Hillbilly over by a tank that was just outside of the massive building. Chuckler gave me a quick goodbye and left to go find his friends. I started that way when I heard my last name being yelled out. I turned just in time for someone to yank me forward and into their chest. Someone was hugging me tightly, and I hugged them back when I realized that it was Snafu.

Snafu stopped hugging me and gave me a hard glare. "Where the _fuck_ have you been? When Burgin couldn't find you after the boats we-he thought-" Snafu cut himself off suddenly, still giving me a hard glare and his darker skin turning a tad darker.

He had actually been worried? Despite Snafu trying to put the blame on Burgin, he was clearly guilty of the worry as well. I opened my mouth to tease him about it before actually telling him what had happened when Burgin showed up and also gave me a hug, not as intense or tightly as Snafu's, but just as concerned as to where I had been too.

The thought of Snafu being worried about me while I'd been gone, made me smile to myself. I made a point to not let him see as I told Burgin what had happened after I got off my boat.


	14. 14: Dwell

Perkins was taken off the line and would be sent back to Australia. He'd come back depending on whether on not the Marines still wanted him on the front lines or not. I ended up seeing the beginning of a goodbye between Perkins and Trager, and I quickly left them alone to their privacy. Trager looked very downcast once Perkins was gone though.

I finally got to meet the redheaded replacement formally. His name was Eugene Sledge, and apparently he had been in the same foxhole as Snafu last night. Sledge, although a lot more soft-spoken than Snafu or even Burgin, looked like he had been accepted into the group. I got to talk to him a bit before we headed out, and it turned out that Sledge was from Alabama, making him a Southerner like me.

"I've been up to Mobile only once in my life," I told him.

Sledge blinked. "Really? I've been down to Florida quite a few times. What town are you from again?"

"Tiny town called Cottondale." I said, not expecting him to know it, but to my surprise, Sledge's eyes widened slightly.

"I've driven through Cottondale!" Sledge said. "My family and I drive through it whenever we go to down to Tallahassee."

What a small world, I thought to myself, pleasantly surprised. Sledge, it seemed, also grew up on a farm, though his was much bigger and more of a plantation than a farm. But he had grown up surrounded by animals and wilderness, that made him alright in my book. Sledge was also polite, yet he had a smart sense of humor that granted him friendship with Snafu.

Sledge was starting to remind me of Norman.

Even though I had this new friendship with Sledge, it didn't help that the entire day we hid out in that building, I kept thinking about their faces. All of the Marines who had died either in front of me or underneath my hands. All of those who were going home today because of injuries. Their faces kept flashing around in my mind, making my hands shake.

"Swartz?"

I found myself flinching ever so slightly at the sound of Ack Ack's voice. I looked up to see my commanding officer standing above me and looking at me with concern in his face. "Your hands are shaking." He observed.

I looked down at my hands as he said this, as if double checking to see if Ack Ack was telling the truth. He squatted next to me and positioned himself so that we were sitting side by side.

"May I take a guess as to what you're thinking about?" Ack Ack asked. I hesitated before nodding, letting him go on. "You're thinking about your men today, the ones you couldn't save."

"You must be a mind reader, Ack Ack." I said, glancing down at my hands. I had clasped them together to keep the shaking from being visible. Ack Ack let out a small huff of laughter.

"Not a mind reader, Swartz. Just good at figuring out what my soldiers are thinking about." Ack Ack paused. "Everyone else is thinking about it too. Is there anything else bothering you?"

I hesitated for a long moment before telling him, "That letter I got on movie night, it was from my Mama. My Dad died."

Ack Ack was quiet for a long time. "I'm truly sorry to hear that, Swartz. Losing a father while you're here, that can't be easy. Do any of your men know?"

"Burgin, De L'Eau, and Snafu."

"That's good. Your friends can be a help during these times, Swartz. Do you know how your brother's doing over in Europe?"

"No, last letter I got from him was right before that massive jump." I paused. "He didn't know about my dad then."

Ack Ack turned and gave me a small smile. "I'm sure he's fine, Swartz. If he's anything like you, he'll be just fine." Ack Ack gave me a hearty pat on my shoulder. "I'm going to tell you something I've been telling a lot of the men today. And that is that you can't dwell on any of this. This war, this life right now, is not permanent. You don't dwell on any of it."

I blinked at this advice and looked at Ack Ack. "Thank you, sir." He smiled at me and gave me another pat of the shoulder before standing up to go check on more of the men. I watched him go, feeling a fresh wave of admiration for my commanding officer. I looked back down to my clasped hands and released my grip on them.

They weren't shaking anymore.


	15. 15: The Hills Have Eyes

The next morning, we were told that we needed to head into the hills. This would send us deeper into the Japanese territory, and I found myself tightening my jaw at the sound of this order. Despite the fact that Ack Ack had comforted me into not dwelling on the Marines' deaths, I was still terrified of going into another fight only to lose countless men.

Each man who had died on the beach and jungle and airfield had had a home, a family before they came halfway around the world for this war. Had it been worth it? So far, all I had seen was death and pain. The farm I had left was becoming a constant presence in my dreams, and these islands were a constant presence in my nightmares.

I wasn't the only one who was having nightmares. Although they'd never admit it, I had noticed my friends waking up in the middle of the night, or twitching violently in their sleep. I only knew because I hardly slept, and I could see them react to their nightmares.

The hills of Peleliu towered over us as we slowly approached them. Burgin was close behind me as we carefully crept deeper into the high rocks. Burgin kept his rifle ready, in case Japanese snipers started shooting. Every now and then I'd glance over my shoulder at him, to make sure he was still there.

"I'm still here, Queen," Burgin whispered at me on my fourth time turning around to see him. "Don't worry 'bout me. I'll be fine."

But I was terrified that he wouldn't be fine. I was terrified that a sniper would take him out while he was still this close to me.

I looked around for Snafu and Sledge. I spotted Sledge's bright red hair poking out from beneath his helmet. Sledgehammer was safe for now. And a few feet behind him was Snafu. I watched him for a moment before looking away. He was fine for now; they all were.

Sudden gunfire exploded and a Marine I had never really talked to got hit right in the helmet. A burst of red shot out of his helmet and I heard Ack Ack scream out for us to return fire. Burgin started shooting behind me as another Marine got shot. I steeled myself before scrambling towards him.

The Marine had been shot in the arm, meaning that he'd live. I let out a slight breath of relief before hurrying to patch him up. The Marine grit his teeth and watched me work until I was finished. "Good job, kid." He grumbled at me as I tagged him for the aid station.

"Stay here for now." I told him. "Someone'll come and get you in a minute." The Marine nodded at me and I left him to go and find more Marines to take care of.

I saw another spurt of blood from a Marine right next to Ack Ack. I launched myself forward, running straight into the open quarry. Dust kicked up around my feet and bullets pelted the ground at my feet. This fact made me run even faster until I skidded to my knees into safety. The sharp rocks bit hard into my knees and legs and I faintly heard the sound of my pants ripping.

This Marine had been shot through the shoulder, an exit wound causing most of the damage. Comparing the entrance to the exit wound, I could tell that some sort of special bullet had gone through this man. I inspected the wound more closely as the fighting continued around me. There were tiny shards of wood inside the wound, and I cursed lightly to myself.

"What is it, Swartz?" Ack Ack asked from behind me. I had almost forgotten that he was there, along with a few other high ranking Marines.

"The bullet was wooden!" I shouted back at him over the sound of gunfire. "It shattered in him."

"Fuck me," The wounded man groaned from underneath me. I quickly started to patch him up, trying to keep more blood from oozing out of him. I felt Ack Ack's presence more now as he stayed right behind me, occasionally shooting his rifle over the ridge above our heads. By the time I finished patching up the Marine as much as I could, the massive amount of gunfire had ceased.

There was a long moment in which nothing happened. I exchanged a look with Ack Ack, and he motioned for me to stay down.

One of the Marines right beside us started to creep around the rocks, checking in on everyone. The wounded man underneath my hands was getting paler, and he was starting to close his eyes.

"Hey," I said, gently slapping his cheek. "Stay awake. Don't you dare fall asleep on me." I gently slapped him again and the Marine blinked at me and smiled extremely faintly.

"Last dame to slap me threw a drink in my face first," He muttered to me. I felt a short lived stab of pain.

"Think about her," I said. "Stay awake and think about seeing her again."

"That's the dream," He said lazily, but his eyes were more wide now. I felt Ack Ack pat my shoulder encouragingly and I glanced over my shoulder at him. Ack Ack gave me a firm nod right before there was a loud cry coming from the back of the patrol.

A few minutes later, I discovered that Hillbilly Jones was dead, shot near the rear of the company. Ack Ack, Hillbilly's closest friend, withdrew into himself for only a few minutes before he transformed back into our fearless leader.

I had to admire him for that. But it still didn't ease the hurt that another one of our men had died, one of our leading officers no less.

I didn't get any sleep at all that night again. I spent the whole night edging amongst the men, taking care of minor wounds, shaking some of them awake from nightmares. At some point during the night I ended up crouched beside Snafu, Burgin, and Sledge.

"When was the last time you slept, Queen?" Sledge asked me quietly. Snafu blinked and looked over to me, piercing me with his light blue gaze.

I hesitated before saying, "I don't really remember."

"You look like hammered shit," Snafu said. Sledge gave Snafu a wide eyed look and I narrowed my tired eyes at him. Burgin was snoring from his small corner. Snafu met my gaze and held it. "Stay here and sleep, Queen. We'll have your back and you can have a break."

"I can't have a break, Snafu," I said, turning away with a short lived rub to my eyes.

"We're gettin' a break right now," Snafu tried to reason with me. I tried to ignore his concern as I scrambled out of the corner. Sledge and Snafu didn't call after me, but I could feel their eyes watching me leave.

The next morning, we were able to creep forward only a few feet. Men kept trying to peek over the ridge to see what was beyond only to get shot at. The only job we needed to do right now was to see the field beyond and to let the others know what was out there.

We were stuck. Those Jap snipers had us covered; anyone who dared to peek over the rocks would get shot at. I was scrambling towards man after man until finally Ack Ack ordered them to stop trying to look. I found myself beside Ack Ack at this point, and my commanding officer was staring at the ridge above our heads. "Someone's gotta scope it out," He muttered. Ack Ack turned away from the ridge and looked right at me, locking eyes with me and holding my gaze.

Ack Ack grabbed my right hand, the one closest to him, and squeezed it so tightly that it hurt. But I squeezed his hand back, what he was about to do not entering my mind. Ack Ack let go of my hand and for several minutes afterwards, I felt the imprint he left there. Before I could think about stopping him, Ack Ack left my side and started to move forward.

"Captain!" I hissed quietly. I moved forward just a bit, some of the men close by trying to do the same. I watched the back of his head, the pain of knowing what was about to happen bursting in my chest. "Ack Ack! Andrew!" I hissed. Others close by were hissing the same exact thing.

"Don't follow me," Ack Ack hissed back at us, surprisingly polite as ever. He glanced at me slightly before turning his back on us and continuing forward until he got to the ridge. I watched in silence, dread filling my gut. And then, Andrew Haldane peeked over the ridge.

The sharp sounding thwack rang through the air and there was a large spurt of blood. I covered my mouth to avoid crying out. Ack Ack's body fell back, and landed with a sickening thud on the rocks. Some men crept forward and dragged him back, and someone closed the captain's eyes for the last time. I inspected the bullet hole, though everyone knew it was useless. Andrew Haldane was dead the second he lifted his head above the ridge.

I followed the men who carried Ack Ack back to where the rest of the men were waiting. I saw Gunny try to light his cigarette, but he couldn't. The old man started shaking, and it took me a second to realize that he was crying. The sight of Gunny crying shook me to the core, and I had to look away. My own eyes had started watering.

I found Sledge, Snafu, and Burgin close to where they put Ack Ack's body. Both Burgin and Sledge were tearing up, their sadness etched clearly on their faces. Snafu, for the most part, was trying to keep his stoic expression, but even he was having trouble with it. Snafu saw me watching and rubbed his eyes furiously, sniffing loudly. I moved forward until I was able to sit among my friends, and we stayed still, the four of us taking in each other's company in this time of grief. I looked down to my hand, still feeling the imprint that Ack Ack had left on me.

Andrew Haldane had been the man who had stopped all of my bullies. Burgin and Snafu had become my first friends, and they had unknowingly chased away any man in King who felt like roughing me up. But Ack Ack had made it known that I was their corpsman, that I wasn't to be touched, and that I deserved to be respected by them. Ack Ack had always been the perfect gentleman, always polite and always looking out for me. He had tried to teach me to not dwell on the pain and suffering of my men. Meeting him, knowing him, was like when Dorothy went to Oz; everything was suddenly in color.

But losing Ack Ack was like when Dorothy went back to Kansas. All the color was snuffed out.

And now all I could do was dwell on that pain and suffering surrounding me.


	16. 16: Bruises

I found an overhanging rock and sat under it, holding my head in my hands and trying to make it stop. All I could think about were all of the men we had lost, Ack Ack was just a new name added to the list. What were we going to do now? I shouldn't be dwelling on their deaths; no one alive wanted this and Ack Ack wouldn't have wanted this. And yet here I was...

"Queen?"

I looked up at the sound of Snafu's voice and saw him crouching down so that he could see me. I blinked at him and scooted over in case he wanted to sit down. Snafu hesitated before coming over and taking the seat right beside me. The overhang was small, so he ended up brushing up against me more than usual.

"Why're you hidin' underneath a rock, Queen?" Snafu asked dryly.

"You're under this rock too." I pointed out.

Snafu snorted. "Yeah, but I'm just here 'cause I saw your boots pokin' out, Queen. You wanna talk 'bout it?"

"You're being awfully nice right now, Snafu."

"You're avoidin' the fucking subject." Snafu said, his voice sounding even sharper than usual. "Start talkin' or I'm gonna leave."

I quickly grabbed onto Snafu's arm as he started to shift away to leave. He froze underneath my touch and he looked over at me with narrowed blue eyes. I matched his gaze and said, "I can't be alone right now, Snafu. D'you mind stayin' for just a few minutes?"

I fully expected him to ignore me and leave. But Snafu settled back down with his back against the rock. "'Course not, Queen. Talk me up."

"I can't stop thinking about it." I confided to him. "No matter how hard I try, I can't stop seeing Ack Ack dying; I keep seeing all of them dying. I can still feel their blood on my hands."

Snafu listened to me intently, curling up so that his chin rested on his knees. "Sorry ya feel like that, Queen. Keep talkin'."

I gave Snafu a glance out of the corner of my eye. "I feel like a coward, Snafu." I told him. The Cajun turned his head to fully look at me now. He blinked in slight confusion and I continued. "Ever since we got onto this island, I've felt fucking terrified of losing people. If another man dies underneath my hands, I think I'm going to go insane."

"You ain't a coward, Queen." Snafu said in what could've been a stern voice. "Cowards, they're afraid of dyin'. You ain't, are ya?"

"Not particularly,"

"Then you ain't a coward,"

He sounded so sure of that, that I found myself raising the corner of my mouth in a sort of half smile. Snafu noticed and smirked right back. We sat in relative silence while he pulled out a cigarette and offered me one. I was tempted to turn him down, but something made me take the cigarette from his fingers. Snafu lit his and then mine as other Marines walked by, seeming to take advantage of the momentarily peace we had.

I inhaled the cigarette the wrong way and ended up coughing violently, my lungs and throat feeling as though I had just swallowed fire and ash. Snafu started to laugh at me but cut himself off.

"What ya wanna do, Queen," Snafu started, sticking the lit cigarette between his teeth and talking through it. "Is you wanna pull the smoke into your lungs when ya take the butt away from your mouth."

"Easier said than done," I grumbled, attempting to do as he said. It was easier the second time, but I still ended up coughing. Snafu laughed at me again.

"You'll get better at it, Queen, don't you worry." Snafu promised me, reaching over and slapping my thigh. I flinched at his touch but shot him a side glance with a raised eyebrow. Snafu smirked at my look and asked, "Have ya heard anything 'bout your crazy ass brother?"

"Nothing since D-Day." I said with a sigh. "That was weeks ago."

"Well, by now he's probably got a letter comin' our way." Snafu said with a shrug. "Let me know what he says when ya get it, okay?"

"Okay, but only since you're so interested in my brother." I said. Snafu rolled his blue eyes at me and nudged me in the ribs hard. I frowned slightly at him in a mocking way so that he knew I wasn't being serious and rubbed at the surely forming bruise. Snafu smirked at me and took another long drag from his cigarette. I mirrored him and felt the nicotine start to affect me. It was making me feel more relaxed than I had felt in a long time.

Snafu must've sensed my nerves start to calm down because he stared to relax more as well. He stretched his legs out more and started to lean slightly onto my shoulder. I drew myself up a bit more, allowing him to put weight onto me. Snafu glanced at me from the corner of his eye but said nothing in response.

We sat in silence underneath that overhanging rock for a long time, just enjoying the other's company. We'd probably have to get moving soon, go back to King Company and back to the war raging here on Peleliu. But for now, Snafu and I smoked our cigarettes until they were nubs, leaned against each other, and enjoyed the rare silence before we had to go back to war.

* * *

 **Important A/N: I'm leaving for basic military training for the U.S Air Force soon. So there won't be an update a day until I'm out of basic and able to sit down again and write as much as I used to. Until then, thanks for reading and being the best readers I could've ever asked for.**

 **-Katie**


	17. 17: You Matter to Me

There was a sort of unearthly silence over the hills. I glanced over at the Marine sleeping soundly just a couple of feet away from me. He had fallen asleep an hour ago and I was trying my best to let him get as much sleep as possible. The Marines around me hadn't been getting much of it lately, what with all the recent attacks and ambushes.

On the other side of the rocky foxhole was Sheridan, his eyes drooping with his own tiredness. He hadn't said much the entire time I had been in his foxhole, but every now and then he'd take a hand away from his weapon and gently press his fingers against the top of his boot, right underneath the blousing. I was so tempted to ask him why he kept doing that, but I continued keeping my mouth shut as it started to drizzle rain down on us again for the seventh time that night.

I only stayed a couple of extra minutes before waving my hand slightly at Sheridan. He looked over at me, raising one eyebrow ever so slightly. I jerked my thumb upwards, telling him that I was leaving the foxhole. Sheridan nodded jerkily and checked to make sure the coast was clear before letting me go. I hurried and plowed into the next foxhole without a second glance at Sheridan.

I recognized the two men in this foxhole as Mueller and Settle. They were both replacements who had shown up around the same time as Sledge, and they barely glanced up as I joined them in the foxhole.

"Are you two okay in here?" I hissed quietly.

Settle gave me a half glance. "Yeah, we're fine, Queen." Mueller grunted his agreement and I left the foxhole to go into the next one, making my rounds as I checked in on the men I had to help protect.

It wasn't long before I came across a foxhole with one of my friends inside of it. Burgin smiled as warmly as he could despite his tiredness. I quietly asked him if he was alright and he nodded.

"I'm doing just fine, Queen," He replied, just as quietly so that the enemy nearby couldn't hear. "You doing okay, Doyle?" He asked the other man in the foxhole.

Doyle was another replacement who had shown up with Sledge, a man with bright blond hair and big brown eyes. I'd have to be lying to say that he wasn't attractive, but I knew better than to try anything while deployed. Doyle gave me a tired smile as well.

"I'm peachy," He told me. "I'd be better if the rain stopped." He let out a small huff of amusement that I didn't return before turning back to the outside of the foxhole.

When I finally found Snafu and Sledge's foxhole, I found myself smiling slightly for the first time during the night. Sledge noticed immediately and smiled back. "Evenin', Queen." He greeted. Snafu, who hadn't been paying attention, looked over his shoulder at me and smiled that smirk-like smile of his.

"Nice of ya to come and visit, Queen." He said, his drawl even deeper from tiredness. "We ain't hurt but you can stay around for a while."

"Don't mind if I do," I replied, sitting down carefully, trying my hardest to avoid the sharp rocks underfoot. Sledge glanced between me and Snafu for a moment before taking the spot right next to me.

"You doin' okay, Queen?" Snafu asked. Ever since our talk underneath the overhanging rock, he had been acting extremely kind (his own version of kindness) and asking how I was feeling. I appreciated it, seeing how little the simple question was asked of me.

"I'm doing alright tonight," I let him know, still keeping my voice down. Snafu blinked at me through the light rain before nodding once with a smirk and turning back towards the dark night.

Sledge gently nudged me with his elbow. "Have you heard anything from your family?" He asked. He knew about my brother and everything going on back home, and he had started showing the same concern that Snafu had been showing recently.

"Nothing yet." I admitted, thinking about how far ago D-Day had been. I forced myself to shrug. "No news is good news, I suppose." Sledge shrugged as well at that and he let out a small sigh. When I glanced at him, I saw that he had bags underneath his eyes and he looked about as tired as everyone else. I nudged him with my elbow, "Get some rest, Sledgehammer. Don't know when we'll get this kinda down time again."

Sledge looked over to Snafu's back, who had turned his head slightly to listen. "You see? Doctor's orders." With that said, he reclined himself further and closed his eyes, looking like he was forcing himself to act relaxed. I moved away from him and crouched next to Snafu.

"Sorry you can't get some rest," I said. "But I think you'll manage, right?"

Snafu snorted. "Right, Queen. Just come back later." I blinked at him, unwillingly feeling my face begin to heat up. Before Snafu could notice, he continued. "I sure as fuck won't be able to wake the Sledgehammer up once he's down. So you'll have to do my watch while I snooze." I snorted and shook my head at him, already feeling my flush go down.

"Whatever you say, Snafu," I muttered. "I'll be back later."

"Lookin' forward to it, Queen." Snafu muttered back. I quickly left the rocky foxhole, feeling my face get uncomfortably warm again.

* * *

 **A/N: Guess who's back...me. Lol, I've finished basic training and I'm in tech school now so I can finally work on this story! Sorry it's been ages and this is a pretty short chapter, but there should be more updates coming and bigger plot points on the way. I hope you guys like what I've got planned for the future of this story. Thank you for being so patient and the best readers I could've asked for. :)**

 **-Katie**


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